‘Seize the day’: Russian embassy pushes Crimea tourism campaign

Ah, Crimea … where the sun is shining and the price of sun lounger rentals is not subject to state regulation.

Three years after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine — an act the United Nations and most Western governments have condemned as illegal — it is now pushing a new tourism campaign for the region. On Monday, the Russian embassy in Canada issued a tweet extolling the region’s beauty and suggesting close to a million Ukrainians visited Crimea last year.

Among the points of interest noted on the tourism website are a “medical beach designed for therapeutic and prophylactic procedures.” The site lets visitors know that should they choose to visit the beach, the price of services such as rental sun loungers is “not subject to state regulation.”

The site also touches on the question of whether Crimea has a working power grid, saying that President Vladimir Putin launched “a string of four energy bridge” in May and assuring tourists that Crimea can now handle a capacity of 1270 megawatts.

It is not clear whether the comment refers to the four Siemens gas turbines that were delivered by the German firm to Russia last year — and which the company confirmed earlier this month had been illegally moved into Crimea, despite extensive European Union sanctions aimed at preventing companies from providing energy equipment for use in the annexed region.

The tourism website also warns travellers that only two banks operate in Crimea — RNBC and Genebank — and both accept only Russian credit cards.

However, those Russian citizens without an account at either bank can set up what is referred to as a “Balaklava Peace” instant debit card for free.

Strelbitskiy said at the time that the flow of Ukrainian tourists to Crimea between January and November 2016 had doubled year-over-year to a total of 880,000.

“As for Ukrainians travelling to Crimea, it’s always been fairly common for them to go there since many of them have relatives living in the peninsula (even before the reunification with Russia), it’s a tourist destination people enjoy coming to, one of the reason’s being that it’s affordable for many,” said Kirill Kalinin, press secretary of the Russian embassy in Ottawa.

Russian troops invaded Crimea in late February 2014 after a revolution in Ukraine toppled the pro-Russian government there. Former president Viktor Yanukovych lost power after he refused to sign a deal that would have tightened political ties with the European Union.

Yanukovich subsequently fled to Russia, and Ukrainians elected current president Petro Poroshenko in May 2014.

Shortly after his election, Poroshenko signed the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement, which commits Ukraine to a series of economic, judicial and financial reforms intended to bring its laws more in line with the EU in preparation for a bid for EU membership.

To learn more about planning a trip to Crimea, you can call the — no joke — ‘Polite Crimea’ hotline.